Maddow peddled an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory

On her primetime show Thursday night, MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow peddled an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory that somehow the Trump administration’s travel ban led to the deaths of four U.S. special forces soldiers in Niger. The accusation was then repeated on Friday by fellow MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell despite a complete lack of evidence.

“September 24th of this year, which was three and a half weeks ago, the Trump administration announced it’s new Muslim ban….they added in North Korea, they added in Venezuela, and they added in Chad,” Maddow declared early in the 9 p.m. ET hour Thursday night. Connecting the supposed dots, she noted moments later: “On Friday of last week, the government of Chad announced that they had completed the withdrawal of all Chadian troops from their neighboring country, Niger, where for years they have been fighting ISIS-linked Islamic militants…”

“September 24th of this year, which was three and a half weeks ago, the Trump administration announced it’s new Muslim ban….they added in North Korea, they added in Venezuela, and they added in Chad,” Maddow declared early in the 9 p.m. ET hour Thursday night. Connecting the supposed dots, she noted moments later: “On Friday of last week, the government of Chad announced that they had completed the withdrawal of all Chadian troops from their neighboring country, Niger, where for years they have been fighting ISIS-linked Islamic militants…”

Having laid the groundwork for her elaborate case, Maddow leveled her unfounded accusation against the President:

That means they pulled their troops out starting Friday, September 29. Which would be the Friday after the Trump administration made this baffling decision to insult and harm our closest military ally in that region….And those Chadian troops pulling out immediately had an effect of emboldening and enabling ISIS attacks….Those troops from Chad got pulled out the 29th. Right after that, that’s when four U.S. Army soldiers got attacked by a large contingent of ISIS fighters in Niger, and four of them killed, within days of the start of the Chadian soldiers being withdrawn.

“So no wonder the President doesn’t want to talk about it, right?,” the left-wing host sneered.